Pop Muzik?

One night Cole and I were driving home and I turned on the radio to listen to some music. When it is just me and him in the car I try to expose him to something other than the pop music his mother listens to when she’s carting him around. Don’t get me wrong, Christina Aguilera and Britney and their clones are fine for some people, but I want to make sure my kid knows who Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top, and the Rolling Stones are too. I’m sure when he gets older there will be some new kind of music that I find annoying (Brutal Death Metal) and play it in his room as loud as he can get away with (I did when I was a teenager), but for now I control his musical world. This particular night we heard “Don’t Let me Down” by the Beatles. The lyrics are easy (if you can say “Don’t let me down” then you know half of them already) and the easy clean beat had us both singing along and giggling between phrases. We had such a good time that he asked for the song the next morning. That gave me the idea to make Cole the modern equivalent of a “mix tape”. Being a child of the 79’s and 80’s I had access to plenty of goofy songs that might have been cutting edge when they came out, but now they are perfect for a kid. For example: Tommy Tutone – “Jenny” (this is the 867-5309 song), The Beatles – “Yellow Submarine”, Devo “Whip it”, Trio - “Da Da Da”, Brak from SpaceGhost – several songs especially “Highway 40”. If you’ve never heard of Brak or SpaceGhost I encourage you to go to whatever entirely legal music website/program you frequent and look for them, they are pretty off-the-wall silly. The point is that whatever music you use for your own “mix tape” can not only be fun for you to listen to with your kid but can also make you feel a little like a kid again too.

It turns out that kids music is an emerging genre in music today. No, I don’t mean Barney CD’s, I am talking about real artists that get a kick out of making music for kids. Probably the most recognizable is Laurie Berkner since she seems to have a video on between every show on the Noggin channel. But did you know that They Might Be Giants also has kids albums? What about Dan Zanes (from the Del Fuegos)? Lead Belly? There are also some artists that you might not expect on compilation albums: Cake, Natalie Merchant, Ella Fitzgerald, Barenaked Ladies, Tom Waits, Moby, to name a few. If you run out of ideas or want something new try one these.

Catch That Train!
For The Kids
Here Come The 123s (with Bonus Tracks and Video) - Amazon.com Exclusive [CD/DVD]